Ask the Tough Questions to Make Discovery Better with Charles Muhlbauer

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Welcome to the live Better Sell Better podcast with your host, Kevin Dorsey of Inside Sales Excellence, the number one Patreon group and YouTube channel for tech sellers and tech sales leaders, where we dive in deep for tactical advice on how to book more meetings, close more deals faster, and lead sales teams to success. But we don't stop there. We also focus on the person in salesperson. We talk about mindset goals, time management, and so much more. So thank you for listening and if you're interested, head on over to patreon.com InsideSalesExcellence now with that, grab a notepad, get ready, and let's dive into the good stuff. So, first of all, most sales reps avoid the tough questions. But then also too, a lot of the times when they do do it, they just go for it. It's like they work themselves up and they go for it. How do you approach that tough question? Like, do you get permission first? Do you just go right into it? Like, how do you approach kind of that, that question? That might be a little bit harder to ask.

There are a number of different ways to approach it, depending on your rapport with the prospect and depending on the pro, the type of prospect that you're speaking to. Some of them are very direct and they. That's how they speak. So there's no, you know, one way to do it. First of all, for those AES that are afraid to ask tough questions, I'm going to tell you right now, tough questions make your job so much fun. Your job as a salesperson is stressful enough. Have fun, let loose. Because it's okay to tell me no. And when it's okay to tell me no, the weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And that gives me the right to ask you when you know how to ask a direct question, honestly, you can ask almost any question you want to ask. That's the reality of it. One way I do that, and I touched upon it earlier, are humbling disclaimers, which we talked about. I talked about it on another podcast. Also, the humbling disclaimers are, hey, Kevin, I could be way off or I could be way out of bounds when I asked this question. I'm not trying to ask it, but when you say you have a problem with X, like, how long has that been an issue for? And then you can end that question again with another humbling disclaimer by saying, I'm just really curious to understand how you guys operate. So it's like your sandwich, like a disclaimer sandwich, if you will. That allows you to ask a direct question. That's one way. Another way. Oh, that's very interesting. Can I maybe ask you, like, a really weird question about that, Kevin? Can I maybe ask you, like, a pretty direct question about that? Would that be okay? It gives me another chance. Just like the humbling disclaimer gave me a chance. Asking for permission gives me a chance to ask you a very direct question. And then the third way, depending again on your rapport and the type of prospect it is, just say, oh, that's interesting. And then just ask. Just. It's not necessarily a disclaimer. You just say, out of my own mere curiosity. And then just ask the direct question. Asking direct questions shows that you're very confident without being rude. Whenever being rude, I actually used to think it meant being rude. That's how I ask direct questions.

Yeah, I think the setup is key there. Again, everyone listening. The tone is also key more than anything, especially for all of. I'll call it the new virtual Sellers. There's a lot of people out there that have not sold virtually have not sold remotely. They were used to selling face to face, where you can read a situation. You can read body language. Your body language controls a lot of the meaning of the word when you're over the phone, over zoom. Tone is now everything, because there is no body language to watch. And so if you're worried about being too aggressive, watch your tone. Because if you stay calm, if you stay relaxed, if you sound curious, people allow you to dig a little bit more as opposed to being too direct. Everyone who said they read the Challenger customer, Challenger seller, they think they know what it means. You gotta challenge. No, no. That was not what that entire book was about. It was not about challenging people or being aggressive. It was about leading with insights and educating. Which was something you mentioned at the very beginning of this is if you can teach them something that helps to establish trust.

Exactly. And there was. Sorry to interrupt you, Kevin. There was another way to ask a direct question that I completely forgot, and that is to ask the direct question while you're simultaneously asking for permission. Ask it. That sounds like. Kevin, would it be okay if I asked you why you feel that way? Something like that.

Okay. The beauty. There's so much. We could go on discovery all day long. Right? So there's something called a layered question, right. Where if you ask two questions together, the answer to the first one also is the answer to the second one. So an example of that. Right. Is. Hey, I was hoping you could help me out real quick. Do you Got a sec? By saying yes to you got a sec. You're also saying yes to help, right? Whereas if you just come out and say, hey, would you help me? It's more direct. So what you're doing is a pseudo layered question there of, like, you know, would it be okay if I asked you, how are you doing blank right now? By saying yes to the first, they're also agreeing to the second. And it is a layered question, and you can set things up very well there. And so I could riff on Discovery all day because this is where I think it goes, right? We've been going for almost 45 minutes now, and that's not even enough. Like, we spend hours, hours and hours on Discovery training. I rarely listen to the end of calls. I rarely go to the end. I listen to the beginning because that's where I believe most deals are lost. Anytime a rep comes up and asks me for a help on a deal, the first question I asked them is, what problem do they agree they had? That's a discovery question. It's nothing at the end. It's what problem did they agree they had and go through? Like, discovery is everything. And so. But with this, we've covered a lot here. I hope people took notes. This is one of those where, like, I hope people come back and, like, write this shit down and actually go implement these things, because it's going to help them. But if you could narrow it down, right? We've been going for 45 minutes now. Three key takeaways. If they forgot everything but three things that would make their discovery better, what would those three things be?

Recapping, humbling, disclaimer to ask difficult questions, and asking for permission. Those three things help reduce your ego, help you become more vulnerable, and allow the prospect to want to help you. I love that. I love it.

It's so simple, y', all, but powerful. It's simple, but powerful. I hope people follow and actually do it. That's the key with all this. Like, anyone can go listen to a podcast. And I love people like, oh, I listen to podcasts all the time. It's, like, cool. Like, what do you do? Did you do anything with it? You just listen. And so the last thing I want to touch on here, right, is the name of the podcast is Live Better, Sell Better. Right? Like, I have this weird idea that if people took better care of themselves, that if people and companies empowered their employees, that if we lived better lives, that the sales also follow. What would be your live better advice for people listening in terms of how to get more joy or fulfillment or energy of life.

I am not currently an individual contributor, but I can tell you right now that there was when I was. There was always a direct correlation between how well I did as an individual contributor and whether or not I was exercising. I couldn't believe it. It's just true. When I had down quarters, I just wasn't exercising at all. And I was eating unhealthy, all that stuff. I mean, at this point, I don't even care what you're eating. When I woke up in the morning and exercised, I just sold better. I was in a better mood. Things you think more clearly, you're more confident, the endorphins, you're happier. When you're happier, you want to have fun. I want to just reiterate one more time, have fun at selling. And the more you can do to make yourself positive and give yourself those endorphins, the more fun you're going to have on the phone.

I love that. I love that. And there are so many studies that talk about when you're exercising, you're more creative, you're a better problem solver, you're more empathetic, you have more energy, you can stay on task better. I mean, like everything right, you look better, you feel better, you sleep better. There are certain things, and I've talked about this with companies I work with, I'm like, why can't I make exercise and meditation mandatory like, if I can make people cold call, like just a soul sucking exercise, why can't I make people exercise and meditate if I know it's going to improve their results?

I love that. I absolutely love that.

When, if and when I'm ever running my own thing, best believe 10 o', clock. We're all doing burpees, y'.

All. Let's do this. Let's rock.

So, Charl Charles, my man, this was phenomenal. You lived up to some of the reputation people are starting to. I'm starting to hear the whispers, I'm starting to hear the recommendations. Yo, this dude Charles, this dude Charles, he gets it, he gets it, he goes through it. How can people get more of you, man? Like where, where can they find you, get more insights, get more of kind of what you're putting down. Like, how can they get more Charles in their life?

You obviously can hit me up on LinkedIn if you wanted to see some extra content coming out soon. I am coming out with a Discovery Mastery digital product, if you will. So you can just sit there and think. Unfortunately, Discovery is kind of just like long term investing. Long term investing is boring and it's hard to do. And discovery is not a quick fix. You have to study it, you have to pay attention to it, and you have to keep the thread on it. You have to really sit there and listen and pay attention and practice. And so I'm coming out with that. Otherwise anybody can hit me up on LinkedIn. And I look forward to hearing from any of you.

Hell yeah, my man. Well, I would recommend everyone do that. I can't wait till that course is ready. We'll make sure to promote it out to the listeners and the email list. But my dude, thank you so much for your time, your energy, your insights. I appreciate you.

Thank you, Kevin, for sure.